UK: Vape Stores Are The Third Most Popular Retail Sector

According to a London-based financier, as the British high street keeps evolving, independant vape stores are the third most popular retail sector, with 1,176 new outlets launching during the last three years.

The rise in vaping has also coincided with a decline in the number of adults who smoke cigarettes. This has dropped from 7.7 million in 2011 to 6.1 million in 2017.

A report by 365 Business Finance, has indicated that barbers, beauty salons, vape stores, cafes and tearooms, along with restaurants and bars have been the fastest growing retail sectors in the UK over the past three years. The local data company has found that these retailers have consistently experienced the highest number of net store openings, with 1,176 new vape outlets, in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

The key findings were as follows:
“In the UK in 2017 there were approximately 2.8 million adults who said they smoked an e-cigarette.

The rise in vaping has also coincided with a decline in the number of adults who smoke cigarettes. This has dropped from 7.7 million in 2011 to 6.1 million in 2017.

Vaping is frequently cited as a way to stop smoking – and around 600,000 people in England say they are using it as a means to do so.

This demand has manifested itself on the high street with vape stores now being one of the fastest growing retail categories. In total there are around 2,000 vape stores in the UK.

In order to put this into context, the data company has created a virtual high street, Recovery Road, in order to better demonstrate the evolving face of the UK retail industry. By reviewing the statistics on these growing retail categories, it found that “even though vape stores have experienced a 35% decrease in the net number of units opened between 2017 and 2018, they were still the third fastest growing category in 2018. This comes at a time when a large number of vapers say that they use e-cigs as a smoking cessation aid.